IPL 2026 Mini Auction Highlights: Record-Breaking Buys, Complete Team Squads, Top Players Sold, and Key Surprises
The IPL 2026 mini auction, held on December 16, 2025, in Abu Dhabi, UAE, delivered high-stakes drama with intense bidding and unexpected twists. As a mini-auction following retentions, 10 franchises filled remaining slots, spending ₹215.45 crore on 77 players from a shortlist of 350. Australian all-rounder Cameron Green shattered records as the most expensive overseas player ever at ₹25.20 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Uncapped Indian talents like Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma also made history with ₹14.20 crore deals each to Chennai Super Kings (CSK). Dive into the full highlights, top buys, complete team squads, notable surprises, and unsold stars from the IPL 2026 auction.
The Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi hosted the thrilling IPL 2026 mini auction.
Key Highlights of IPL 2026 Mini Auction
- Date and Venue — December 16, 2025, at Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi.
- Players Sold — 77 out of 350 shortlisted (from 1,390 registered).
- Total Spend — ₹215.45 crore across 10 franchises.
- Record Broken — Cameron Green at ₹25.20 crore (most expensive overseas player).
- Uncapped Sensations — Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma tied for highest uncapped buy at ₹14.20 crore each.
- Most Selections — KKR picked 13 players; PBKS the fewest at 4.
The auction featured aggressive strategies, with uncapped Indians dominating bids and several big names surprisingly unsold.
Top 10 Most Expensive Players in IPL 2026 Auction
Here are the headline-grabbing buys that redefined IPL economics:
- Cameron Green (All-rounder, AUS) → Kolkata Knight Riders — ₹25.20 crore
- Matheesha Pathirana (Bowler, SL) → Kolkata Knight Riders — ₹18 crore
- Prashant Veer (Uncapped Batter, IND) → Chennai Super Kings — ₹14.20 crore
- Kartik Sharma (Uncapped All-rounder, IND) → Chennai Super Kings — ₹14.20 crore
- Liam Livingstone (All-rounder, ENG) → Sunrisers Hyderabad — ₹13 crore
- Mustafizur Rahman (Bowler, BAN) → Kolkata Knight Riders — ₹9.20 crore
- Josh Inglis (WK-Batter, AUS) → Lucknow Super Giants — ₹8.60 crore
- Auqib Dar (Uncapped Bowler, IND) → Delhi Capitals — ₹8.40 crore
- Ravi Bishnoi (Bowler, IND) → Rajasthan Royals — ₹7.20 crore
- Jason Holder (All-rounder, WI) → Gujarat Titans — ₹7 crore (tied with Venkatesh Iyer to RCB at ₹7 crore)
Cameron Green joins KKR for a record ₹25.20 crore, becoming the costliest overseas player in IPL history.
Collage of top buys that lit up the IPL 2026 mini auction.
Notable Surprises and Unsold Players
- Biggest Surprises → Uncapped Indians stole the show, with CSK investing heavily in youth like Prashant Veer and Kartik Sharma. KKR's double strike on Green and Pathirana for over ₹43 crore combined.
Shocking unsolds included stars like Devon Conway, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Deepak Hooda, Rachin Ravindra, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Alzarri Joseph.
Complete IPL 2026 Team Squads (Retained + Auction Buys)
Here are the updated squads post-auction, blending retained players with new buys (prices for auction buys noted).
Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
Retained: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Matheesha Pathirana, Devon Conway, Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana, Rachin Ravindra, Shaik Rasheed, Nishant Sindhu, Sameer Rizvi, Mitchell Santner, Aravelly Avanish Rao, Mukesh Choudhary, Ajay Mandal, Prashant Solanki, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ajinkya Rahane, Shardul Thakur.
Auction Buys: Kartik Sharma (₹14.20 cr), Prashant Veer (₹14.20 cr), Rahul Chahar (₹5.20 cr), Matt Henry (₹2 cr), Akeal Hosein (₹2 cr), Matthew Short (₹1.50 cr), Zak Foulkes (₹0.75 cr), Sarfaraz Khan (₹0.75 cr), Aman Khan (₹0.40 cr).
Delhi Capitals (DC)
Retained: Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Rasikh Dar, Pravin Dubey, Ricky Bhui, Kumar Kushagra, Sumit Kumar, Lalit Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Anrich Nortje, Gerald Coetzee.
Auction Buys: Auqib Dar (₹8.40 cr), Pathum Nissanka (₹4 cr), Kyle Jamieson (₹2 cr), Lungisani Ngidi (₹2 cr), Ben Duckett (₹2 cr), David Miller (₹2 cr), Prithvi Shaw (₹0.75 cr), Sahil Parakh (₹0.30 cr).
Gujarat Titans (GT)
Retained: Shubman Gill (c), Rashid Khan, Sai Sudharsan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, R Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Manav Suthar, Sandeep Warrier, Arshdeep Brar, Jitesh Sharma, Azmatullah Omarzai, Noor Ahmad, Darshan Nalkande, Kartik Tyagi, Mohit Sharma.
Auction Buys: Jason Holder (₹7 cr), Tom Banton (₹2 cr), Ashok Sharma (₹0.90 cr), Luke Wood (₹0.75 cr), Prithviraj Yarra (₹0.30 cr).
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Retained: Rinku Singh (c), Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Sherfane Rutherford, Vaibhav Arora, Anukul Roy, Suyash Sharma, Allah Ghazanfar, Mitchell Starc, Chetan Sakariya, Manish Pandey.
Auction Buys: Cameron Green (₹25.20 cr), Matheesha Pathirana (₹18 cr), Mustafizur Rahman (₹9.20 cr), Tejasvi Singh (₹3 cr), Rachin Ravindra (₹2 cr), Finn Allen (₹2 cr), Tim Seifert (₹1.50 cr), Akash Deep (₹1 cr), Rahul Tripathi (₹0.75 cr), Daksh Kamra (₹0.30 cr), Sarthak Ranjan (₹0.30 cr), Prashant Solanki (₹0.30 cr), Kartik Tyagi (₹0.30 cr).
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG)
Retained: Nicholas Pooran, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Aryan Juyal, Krishnappa Gowtham, Kyle Mayers, Quinton de Kock, Arshin Kulkarni, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Manimaran Siddharth, Arshad Khan, Shamar Joseph, Vidwath Kaverappa, Akash Madhwal, Abdul Samad.
Auction Buys: Josh Inglis (₹8.60 cr), Mukul Choudhary (₹2.60 cr), Akshat Raghuwanshi (₹2.20 cr), Anrich Nortje (₹2 cr), Wanindu Hasaranga (₹2 cr), Naman Tiwari (₹1 cr).
Mumbai Indians (MI)
Retained: Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Nehal Wadhera, Dewald Brevis, Akash Madhwal, Arjun Tendulkar, Naman Dhir, Shams Mulani, Anshul Kamboj, Mohammad Nabi, Romario Shepherd, Gerald Coetzee, Shreyas Gopal, Luke Wood, Kwena Maphaka.
Auction Buys: Quinton de Kock (₹1 cr), Mayank Rawat (₹0.30 cr), Atharva Ankolekar (₹0.30 cr), Mohammad Izhar (₹0.30 cr), Danish Malewar (₹0.30 cr).
Punjab Kings (PBKS)
Retained: Shashank Singh, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Jitesh Sharma, Harpreet Brar, Rilee Rossouw, Shivam Singh, Vishwanath Singh, Ashutosh Sharma, Atharva Taide, Rishi Dhawan, Harpreet Bhatia, Chris Woakes, Tanay Thyagarajan, Prince Choudhary.
Auction Buys: Ben Dwarshuis (₹4.40 cr), Cooper Connolly (₹3 cr), Vishal Nishad (₹0.30 cr), Pravin Dubey (₹0.30 cr).
Rajasthan Royals (RR)
Retained: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Nandre Burger, Avesh Khan, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Keshav Maharaj.
Auction Buys: Ravi Bishnoi (₹7.20 cr), Adam Milne (₹2.40 cr), Ravi Singh (₹0.95 cr), Sushant Mishra (₹0.90 cr), Kuldeep Sen (₹0.75 cr), Brijesh Sharma (₹0.30 cr), Aman Rao Perala (₹0.30 cr), Vignesh Puthur (₹0.30 cr), Yash Raj Punja (₹0.30 cr).
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)
Retained: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Prabhudessai, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Swapnil Singh, Manoj Bhandage, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Will Jacks, Reece Topley, Cameron Green, Mohammed Siraj.
Auction Buys: Venkatesh Iyer (₹7 cr), Mangesh Yadav (₹5.20 cr), Jacob Duffy (₹2 cr), Jordan Cox (₹0.75 cr), Kanishk Chouhan (₹0.30 cr), Vihaan Malhotra (₹0.30 cr), Vicky Ostwal (₹0.30 cr), Satvik Deswal (₹0.30 cr).
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Retained: Pat Cummins (c), Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Sanvir Singh, Glenn Phillips, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Markande, Fazilhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Singh, Jaydev Unadkat.
Auction Buys: Liam Livingstone (₹13 cr), Jack Edwards (₹3 cr), Salil Arora (₹1.50 cr), Shivam Mavi (₹0.75 cr), Krains Fuletra (₹0.30 cr), Praful Hinge (₹0.30 cr), Amit Kumar (₹0.30 cr), Onkar Tarmale (₹0.30 cr), Sakib Hussain (₹0.30 cr), Shivang Kumar (₹0.30 cr).
With these refreshed lineups, IPL 2026 is set for fireworks. Which team do you think got the best deals? Drop your views in the comments, and follow for more IPL insights!
Last Updated: Based on official IPL 2026 auction results.